Classroom exercises by students of Modern Languages at University of Deusto (Spain)

Nowadays with the extended and massive use of the web, it is rather easy to find a good dictionary online that you can trust. Although there are actually very good and useful translators in the web, sometimes our choice must be defined by our needs.

Unlike many other translators, the Diccionario de la lengua española is the online version of the official and updated dictionary of the Real Academia Española. So, we should not expect a wide range of languages to choose from nor a variety of options. This precise tool is exactly what it claims to be, the best and only oficial web resource to trust when we are looking for the exact and correct form of a word. So this is, of course, just a one way spanish dictionary.

Its use is simple, we just have to go to www.rae.es and fill the first field that appears in the home screen, the one labelled with the name of the dictionary. Once we have typed the word we are willing to search, we press enter or we click the arrow in the right hand side of the search field.

Once we have done the search we will be shown the exact definition of the word, as well as its different meaning ranging in relevance from higher to lower. In the same line of every meaning, we find the morphological category of the word. In some cases we might as well find explanatory abbreviations that will help us understand the use normally given to the word or information such as the country or region where that exact meaning of the word is used.

In the image below we can see an example of a word with different meanings and how the dictionary efficiently manages to show details and explanations about the category of the words and the contexts and expressions it is more commonly used with. After all the definitions and meanings, we can find other term entries for the compound words containing the word in the search. Some of this terms can refer to technical terminology and will always be explained by an abbreviation related to the field of study where we will find such meaning.

Here are some of the abbreviations used in this entry that will help us get a global idea of the criteria used in the dictionary:

-adj. stands for adjetivo. (adjective).

-m. stands for nombre masculine (masculine noun).

-Coloq. stands for colloquial (colloquial).

-Guat. Stands for Guatemala.

-U.t.c.s. stands for usado también como sustantivo (also used as a noun).

-Arq. stands for Arquitectura (architecture).

-Anat. stands for Anatomía (anatomy).

-loc.verb. stands for locución verbal (verb phrase).

Once we have used it for a while we can easily find out that this dictionary is the best available for Spanish definitions, not merely as it is the only official one, but also because they have managed to make a reliable online version without disregarding the details found in the paper volumes. Moreover, with this dictionary we will also be able to find the most determinant information about every term we search, and find the meaning of each abbreviation included in the description by just pointing it.

To sum up we must point out that is a powerful search engine that provides the best reference in the web for any Spanish word and all the meanings accepted by the official institution RAE. The adaptation of the volumes and the new rules make it a perfect solution for those who seek the most updated material in Spanish and they want to be meticulous.

By using this online dictionary we can be sure that every result of our searches has been studied for along time by some of the best scholars. And that not only means accuracy but also durability.

This dictionary is enough technical and yet simple to fit almost everyone’s needs; from casual readers to professional researchers.